1905 



CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



233: 



ful manipulation of bad-tempered races; but 

 since there are bees so gentle as to remove 

 all difficulties in this direction, and which 

 are productive workers, comparing favora- 

 bly with most others, the beginner would do 

 well to adopt one of these races. The gen- 

 tlest are the Caucasians, whose manifest 

 place is in popularizing bee-keeping in cit- 

 ies and towns wherein fear of stings is their 

 chief objection. It is quite possible, with- 

 out the slightest fear of stings, to open the 

 hives at any time during the working sea- 

 son, without the use of smoke, and with no 

 protection to face or hands. The queens 

 are exceedingly prolific, and the workers in- 

 dustrious. 



Camiolans for comb honey.— For the high- 

 est grade of snow-white comb honey, Cami- 

 olan bees, or bees largely composed of that 

 blood, are to be recommended. They are 

 noted for prolificness, hardiness, industry, 

 and gentleness. 



The question might be raised why I would 

 not recommend here the Italians, so long 

 and favorably known in this country. While 

 admitting that many strains of the Italians 

 quite exceed others in productiveness, gen- 

 tleness, hardiness, and honey-yielding pow- 

 ers, I can not in these particulars rank 

 them as averaging equal to the Carniolans. 

 Their disposition to cease brood-rearing, 

 wholly or in part, at critical times, and 

 their great predisposition toward dwindling 

 in early spring, oftentimes makes it very 

 uncertain whether their colonies will be in 

 proper condition for the given harvest. On 

 the other hand, the steady brooding qualities 

 of the Carniolans enable any one who manip- 

 ulates them rightly to bring them into any 

 given harvest with a large force of field 

 workers. 



Cyprio-Carniolans for extracted honey.— 

 By mating Cyprian queens to Carniolan 

 drones a combination is produced of the pro- 

 lificness, great energy in honey-gathering, 

 and general activity of the best of the East- 

 ern races, with the most hardy, prolific, and 

 gentle of the Western races. The loss in 

 this combination is seen in the somewhat 

 watery appearance of the cappings of the 

 comb honey. 



SELECTION OF BREEDING QUEENS. 



The greatest possible care should be ob- 

 served in the selection of the queen-mother, 

 both as regards the queen herself and also 

 the qualities and race-characteristics of her 

 progeny. 



The stock,— A man of experience may 

 judge merely by a careful comparison, dur- 

 mg a given honey-flow, of the activity and 

 relative amount of honey gathered in his 

 apiary by individual colonies, and should 

 choose from these the gentlest colony which 

 shows the general race-characteristics of 

 the breed to which it belongs. 



The queen.— The queen, likewise, must 

 show, in a preeminent degree, her race- 

 characteristics; that is, she must be prolific 

 for one of her race. / have never found a 

 queen-bee that was too prolific to suit me. 



Along with this I look for strength of body,, 

 limbs, and wings. 



MANNER OF SECURING CELLS. 



If considerable numbers of cells are re- 

 quired, it is always better to have a colony 

 of Carniolan bees, Caucasians, or some one 

 of the Eastern races as cell-builders, since 

 they produce much greater numbers, and 

 are also excellent nurse-bees. The first 

 step is to make queenless a very populous 

 colony. On the third day thereafter the 

 colony may be put into condition to receive 

 queen-cells, which, when built, may be cut 

 out and attached with melted wax at regu- 

 lar intervals on a top-bar. The larvas rangmg 

 in age from forty to sixty hours are to be 

 removed with a slightly bent toothpick, and, 

 in their place, are to be put, with the same 

 instrument, larvae from twelve to thirty-six 

 hours of age, taken from the colony of the 

 chosen queen. This substitution of young 

 larvae insures a full amount of food from 

 the very beginning— even a superabundance. 



The next step consists in the removal of 

 all unsealed larvae from the populous colony 

 which has been queenless during the pre- 

 ceding two or three days, to force the bees 

 to turn their whole attention to the queen- 

 cells. Should honey not be coming in freely, 

 the colony should be fed daily a pint or more 

 of syrup, and should have an abundance of 

 pollen in the hive. If the weather is cool 

 and changeable, care should be taken to 

 keep the brood-nest warm. The young 

 queens will all emerge 12J to ISJ days after 

 the transferring or substitution of the larvae 

 takes place. It will be easy to provide nu- 

 clei for the reception of each one of these 

 queen-cells, or a small queen-nursery con- 

 sisting of wire-cloth cages containing brood. 

 It is by no means advisable to place the 

 cells in a queen-nursery until the young 

 queens are practically at the very point of 

 emergence, since the slightest neglect or 

 chilling at such a time, if not fatal is highly 

 injurious to the future usefulness of the 

 queen. 



After emerging, the young queens are to 

 be allowed a period of a week to fifteen 

 days for mating. While queens of the Eu- 

 ropean races usually mate in from five to 

 seven days after emerging, those of Eastern 

 races more often require nine to fifteen 

 days; but in all cases the less confinement 

 after four or five days the better. 



SELECTION OF DRONES. 



Quite the same care should be given the 

 selection of the drones. It is true that we 

 may not wholly control the mating; but in 

 case a certain race is bred in its purity, and 

 surrounding apiaries are stocked with those 

 of a different type, it will be quite easy to 

 reject any queens that have mated with 

 drones of another race. It is, therefore, 

 decidedly advisable to limit drone-produc- 

 tion to queens which have sprung from the 

 best colonies. Repeated experiments in 

 crossing various types have convinced me 

 that the drones have greater influence over 

 the temperament and constitution of the 

 workers than have the queens. 



